A speech prepared for the April 8, 2007 rallyin celebrating 20 million CCP resignations

By way of introduction, let me say that I am John Patrick Kusumi, and I am the founder of the China Support Network. Very logically, any movement--such as the Chinese democracy movement--ought to have two groups: leaders on the one hand, and supporters or followers on the other hand. I suppose that a strong and successful movement will experience success on both hands; leaders will do the right things, and supporters will do what it takes to push forward the mandate of the leaders.

In 1989, when Tiananmen Square's massacre happened, it was evident that in the heart of Beijing, students had stood in defiance of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]. They stood for freedom, democracy, and human rights; and against communists, dictators, tyrants, and thugs. China needs more than new leaders; China needs a new way. Perhaps that way includes hallmarks like truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. At any rate, the Chinese students of 1989 stood for a new and better future for all of China's people.

Beijing experienced a brief interval of freedom--an anomaly, recorded by the world's news cameras. As opposed to Communists keeping order, students directed the traffic in central Beijing. As opposed to printing propaganda, Chinese media started to print more accurate news--the truth of what was happening in Beijing. Freedom of the press came to China, but only for a few days, during the students' hunger strike. As I say, the brief interval was an anomaly, because all of China's history is of one dictatorship after another.

For those few days, Beijing rejected its dictator, and people did the right thing without being told what to do. Crime went down; it was said that even the thieves were on strike. There were acts of human kindness to strangers, because millions of people in Beijing collected supplies for the students, and turned out on the streets to march in support of China's free and democratic future. The march to freedom was rudely interrupted by 300,000 army troops, using tanks, guns, armored personnel carriers, and live ammunition against unsuspecting, unarmed, civilian non-combatants.

That massacre at Tiananmen, with about 3,000 untimely deaths of civilians, was a crime against humanity--reported around the world, and condemned globally. The hand of evil made its move through the work of Deng Xiaoping, Li Peng, and Yang Shankun. The hand of good was also seen--this is where we get a famous image; that of one man, an ordinary Beijinger, who stepped out into the street and stopped a line of tanks. That day, and that image, means a lot to China. I expect that it always will do so, but the current government has temporarily hidden it from the Chinese people through censorship.

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That image also got Americans going. Americans relate to standing and fighting for freedom. That is when Americans got going, into my group as a prime example. Eighteen years ago, America responded and did the right thing for freedom. We came together and we supported such things as Chinese demands for human rights, and visa extensions in the U.S. Congress to protect the Chinese students who were studying in America. To be supportive of the Chinese dissidents was simply the right thing to do.

In fact, Bill Clinton won the U.S. presidency by promising a stiffer China policy. He said that he would not coddle the butchers of Beijing. Americans voted for a stronger U.S. China policy. We could see that George Bush senior did not care about human rights. From his adminstration, the message we can read is that "Death for you is fine by him." If he cared about human rights, he would have stopped the trade which gives China surplus funds with which to buy more tanks, guns, armored personnel carriers, live ammunition, and to pay for jailers at laogai slave labor camps, as well as supplies, like the electric cattle prods which the jailers use in torture at the laogai camps.

And, if George Bush cared about U.S. national security, then he would have stopped selling satellite technology to China's government. He sold that to China by granting a presidential waiver to the arms embargo, that had been recently declared by the U.S. and the EU.

So, as the next U.S. President, did Bill Clinton fix things? --No, he made things worse. Under Clinton, technology transfer went from satellite technology to nuclear technology. That was a presidential term of pandering to business interests, and building up a nuclear-armed, communist superpower--gratuitously so. The pandering and welfare for tyrants has been a feature of the foreign policies of both Bill Clinton and his successor, George W. Bush. Are ALL baby boomer Presidents given to being "closet Maoists"? --I begin to fear that it is so.

And yet somehow, we have come to the present day. Today's is an occasion where I stand before you, the Chinese pro-freedom community, and once again the China Support Network is joining you in your push for a free China. We want to invite you and your organizations into a new coalition, that we name the Freedom First, Olympics Second Coalition. It will conduct our Freedom First, Olympics Second campaign. China must be free before it is the host of the Olympic Games. That means, free China now, not in 2009, 2010, 2012, or later. Free China now, before you can have the Olympics in your country.

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In essence, I stand on a different side of history--apart from communists, dictators, tyrants, and thugs. The dictators say that to hold a smooth Olympics, that there must be a crackdown against Falun Gong. That crackdown is a heinous atrocity and it is why the Olympic Games should be boycotted by people of conscience. Those who truly value the Olympic spirit will not want it mixed with a crackdown, a holocaust, and a case of genocide. The International Olympic Committee, in its choice of host city, has shown a craven indifference to human rights. From the IOC, the message we can read is that "Death for you is fine by them."

Again, I stand on a different side of history. I say that to hold a smooth Olympics, that it is necessary to free China now. To sweep away the dictators. To have Freedom First, Olympics Second. Today, I also have my congratulations for you. You recently made 20 million people quit from the CCP. That is in the spirit to free China now, and I invite you to join my CSN group in the coalition: Freedom First, Olympics Second!

April is also a special month due to the anniversary of an event in China that was the beginning of the Tiananmen Square uprising. On April 15, it is the 18th anniversary of the death of Hu Yaobang. On April 17 in 1989, this prompted the students to march to Tiananmen Square from their universities in Beijing. Seven weeks of a pro-democracy uprising ensued.

The 18th anniversary is special in a different way than a 15th or a 20th anniversary. An 18-year interval denotes the passing of one full generation – the interval for a newly born child to be newly recognized as an adult. There is a new generation of younger adults who do not remember the occasion of Tiananmen Square. For those of us who do know the events of that day, it is time to begin anew with an effort of education.